GOP Convention: Several Major U.S. Companies Won’t Be Sponsoring Donald Trump Nomination Event

The GOP Convention is coming up in July, and it is there that the controversial reality TV star Donald Trump is expected to be announced as the GOP’s presidential nominee. Donald Trump has been bleeding support lately, following some controversial remarks about a federal judge with Hispanic heritage, and some of the latest polls have him trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by as many as 12 points in a hypothetical general election match-up.

Now, as The Hill reports, it appears that sponsors of the GOP Convention are pulling out of the event. We’re not talking just little, no-name sponsors, either. The list of sponsors that will not be financially backing the 2016 GOP Convention includes some major U.S. companies, companies that did sponsor the GOP Convention back in 2012.

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The 2016 GOP Convention is scheduled to take place in Cleveland, Ohio, in July, and UPS, Wells Fargo, Motorola, JPMorgan Chase, Walgreens, and Ford have all decided to withdraw their financial support from the convention this year.

None of the companies has gone on record to state that they are withdrawing their financial support of the GOP Convention because Donald Trump has become the nominee, but the timing of the news is very suspect.

It’s also worth noting that The Donald hasn’t been much of a friend to at least one of the companies who will not be sponsoring the 2016 GOP Convention. Donald Trump regularly criticizes Ford during his rallies and campaign speeches. Trump has been incredibly critical of Ford since it moved a factory from the United States to Mexico, blasting the car maker frequently. According to Ford, the company won’t be sponsoring the GOP Convention, nor will it be getting involved in the Democratic convention.

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Wells Fargo, according to at least one source, will be sponsoring the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia despite pulling its sponsorship from the 2016 GOP Convention. Wells Fargo, admittedly, has a substantial market share in Philly.

JPMorgan, Walgreens, UPS, and Motorola will also not be sponsoring the Democratic Convention in addition to pulling their sponsorship from the GOP Convention, which they all sponsored back in 2012.

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As Talking Points Memo reports, the list of major U.S. companies who are collectively distancing themselves from the GOP Convention is growing as the date of the GOP Convention draws nearer. According to at least one spokeswoman for the Cleveland host committee, Emily Lauer, the “lull” in willing corporate sponsors for the GOP Convention did coincide with Donald Trump becoming the party’s presumptive nominee, this despite no corporation actually confirming the correlation.

Lauer insists, though, that “the sky is not falling.”

In addition to the companies above, which will not be sponsoring the 2016 GOP Convention, the infamous Koch brothers have announced they will not be funding this year’s GOP Convention. On top of that, Senator John McCain and both former presidents Bush have said they won’t even be attending the GOP Convention in Cleveland this year.

Not everyone is pulling out of the 2016 GOP Convention, though. The American Petroleum Institute will be getting in on the game, and Cisco Systems Inc., Twitter, Facebook, and AT&T will be offering “cost-free technical support.”

Here’s a list of the U.S. companies that are either scaling back or completely withdrawing their support from the GOP Convention.

MetLife Inc.

Walgreens

Hewlett Packard Inc.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

UPS

Motorola

Wells Fargo & Co.

Ford Motor Co.

Coca-Cola

Microsoft

The list is current at the time of this article’s publication, but it keeps growing as the GOP Convention looms ever closer.

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The news that more and more major U.S. companies are unwilling to sponsor the 2016 GOP convention comes at a particularly troubling time in Donald Trump’s campaign. Although he’s managed to, against all odds, become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, it appears that Trump’s “politically incorrect” way of speaking is finally catching up to him.

On the cusp of the GOP Convention, he’s beginning to lag in the polls, is losing the support of many in the Republican Party, and there are even rumors circulating that establishment Republicans are going to try to block his nomination at the GOP Convention.